Download patch from internet

[Vanessa Li]

Our application is not an internet application,
but we'd like users to be able to download patches
from our web site.

Can anyone please give me some hint on how to implement
patch download from internet? I know many of you have
done that. Any idea/hint/direction to get me started
is greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance,
Vanessa

Vanessa Li

[Valerie Bradley]

Well, if nothing else, you can package the patch into a self-extracting EXE that the user can download from your website. The patch would then be installed by running the EXE on their local PC.

I'm not sure if this is what you're looking for, or if you want something that's more elaborate.

Good luck, and happy coding!

=================================================
Valerie L. Bradley
Software Engineer
Intel Corporation

* All opinions expressed are mine and not those of my employer.

[William Walseth]

Vanessa,

I have extensive experience installing "patches" for my Windows ’95 and NT applications over the internet. I have created a product, ActiveUser, which automatically checks every file my application requires, downloads any out of date files and then starts my application. ActiveUser is independent, and can be used with any Win32 program. A current client uses the ActiveUser design to distribute software to 3,000 workstations located in 15 countries. The application is about 25MB, and consists of 180 files. The ActiveUser verification takes about 1 second over a private intranet. A typical incremental update usually includes ~5MB (6 files) and takes about 45 seconds. I would be happy to get together and discuss how you could use ActiveUser to download your application "patches" over the internet.

ActiveUser does not actually distribute patches instead it distributes any files that are out of date. Simply update files on the FTP server and ActiveUser will automatically determine what needs to be distributed to each workstation. This eliminates the need for a separate "patch" product and the complex record keeping that they required. I would recommend that you do not use patching products like RTPatch or custom InstallShield scripts since it is impossible to create a patch that all users could use. Keep in mind that a "patch" only works for users with a specific version of your software. Soon you will have dozens of patches and dozens of patch interdependencies to maintain. Worse yet, your users and support personnel will continually be determining which patch goes with which version of your software.

One side benefit of the ActiveUser approach, your software will automatically replace files accidentally deleted, or replaced with an out of date version. With a patching product you would have to re-install the entire application (and all the patches), or build a custom patch containing just one file.

With ActiveUser, upgrades are distributed incrementally, making it ideal for Internet users or user connected over a slow dial-up connection. Only files that are out of date are distributed. In addition to downloading out-of-date files, ActiveUser will also register ActiveX components.

For more information about ActiveUser and "pull" technology, drop me an e-mail.

William A. Walseth
wwalseth@rtgsoft.com

[Stuart Ledwich]

I remember a program call .rtPatch which used to create patch files for your app (i.e. your app is 4mb in size, you change something, .rtpatch creates a small patch exe that can only be applied to your original exe)

Sorry i can not be more specific.